Angels Walking Read Online Free PDF

talking about my future here.” He caught himself. For the first time since she sat down hereached for her hand. “ Our future. Samantha, this is very important.”
    She nodded. “I’m sorry. Go ahead.”
    “Anyway.” Arnie seemed to take longer than usual to gather his thoughts. “Manny talked to me at lunch about it and I guess he’s going to the partners tomorrow morning and . . .”
    Samantha . The name grated on her now. Arnie had called her that from the beginning. He thought it sounded important. Academic. She was raised with the name. Samantha was how she had thought of herself until that summer. Only two people had ever called her Sami: Mary Catherine.
    And Tyler Ames.
    Otherwise she was Samantha Dawson. When Tyler was in her life her grandparents frowned on the fact that he called her Sami. “It’s insulting to be called something other than your given name,” her grandma had told her. “Sami sounds demeaning. Especially when Samantha is such a beautiful name.”
    Sami had seen her grandmother’s point. Back then she liked the name Samantha. It worked well with professors and her boss at Finkel and Schmidt. There was an elegance about it, a sense of success and professionalism. But it didn’t fit her the way Sami did.
    And while she would always introduce herself as Samantha, privately she thought of herself as Sami.
    The way Tyler had seen her.
    “Samantha?”
    She jumped. “Hmm?”
    Arnie looked shocked. “What’s wrong with you?”
    Before she could answer, Jean, the waiter, appeared with his perpetual smile and broken English. “Hello! How you aretoday?” Jean was their guy. Every time. He seemed to sense things weren’t great between them. “I give you time? Yes?”
    “A few minutes, Jean.” Arnie’s smile looked stale. “Please.” Jean nodded and waved, backing up from the table and hurrying to the adjacent one. When he was out of earshot, Arnie sounded disappointed. “Could you try to listen to me? I mean, first you’re late and then you’re”—he waved his hand around—“I don’t know, distracted. Like you don’t care.”
    “I’m sorry.” Sami gave a quick shake of her head. “Really.”
    “You understand how big this is, right?” His tone softened. He took her hand again. “The firm is very political. In a few years—if I’m interested—there’s talk of me running for office.” Arnie leaned in and gently kissed her lips. “We’ll be married by then, of course.” Clearly, there wasn’t a doubt in his mind. He touched her face and smiled. “I’ll need your support, Samantha. Fully.”
    “Of course.” She covered his hand with her own. “Just a long day at the office.” Her smile came easily, even if she didn’t feel it. “You have my support. You know that.”
    The rest of the meal she listened better, interjecting her approval or affirmation where appropriate. She was happy for Arnie and his career, his dreams, and even his political aspirations, if that’s what he wanted. But every so often, despite her best efforts to stay focused, Sami caught herself looking at the blue sky and thinking about a boy who lay broken in a hospital somewhere in Pensacola, Florida. A boy who traded everything for the dream of playing baseball.
    Even her.

3

    C HERYL CONLEY DREADED ANY call from Merrill Place Retirement Center, but especially tonight. The call came just after eight o’clock, when she and her husband had settled down in front of the TV with their granddaughters for a much-anticipated showing of Disney’s Tangled . Saturday was their night to babysit the girls, something they looked forward to all week.
    Cheryl took the call in the next room. Her mother had been in the retirement center’s Alzheimer’s unit for the past year. Lately she’d been on a steady decline. “Hello?” She held her breath.
    “Ms. Conley, it’s Harrison Myers over at Merrill Place. Sorry to bother you.” He sighed. “Your mother isn’t doing well. I thought I should